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Junior Cases
The Junior Cases were a series of legal disputations between juniorist adolescents and socially conservative adults or, in some instances, between institutions established by adults and organizations/governments representing the interests of adolescents, including the Zekian government advocating for adolescents' expressed interests. They were part of the long-standing Wjian Conflict and were the result of efforts by the Zekian government to resolve that conflict. Background of the Junior Cases During the Turbulence of the 1980s, many adolescents and preteens began to agitate for their civil and student rights and to act independently of adults to establish their own places as vital members of society. They created their own schools, worked their own jobs, attempted to vote in elections and fought for the right to vote, protested against corporal punishment, and even established their own representative council and created their own (albeit short-lived) country, intelligently laying out their grievances in the Deed of Junior Secession. One instance of junior independent action was the creation of the Counterakadaemi, a "comprehensive education" public academy conceived of and established by students, supported by teachers, university professors, laboring professionals (medicians nurses, dentists, psychiatrists, and pharmacists, lawyers, technicians, authors, musicians, artists, etc.) who provide practical-experiential learning services to students free of charge, and funded by the government, individual philanthropists, open churches, and public service educational organizations or academic charities that offer grants and scholarships. Many adults did not support this "fledging contrarian spirit" ("The Devil in Our Youth", Ayaka, Zekian Chronicles) of adolescents who "bark and howl and cough at the natural order of human society", believing "the Devil had become incarnate, taking hold of the bodies and minds of our youth". For this reason, many adults began to file lawsuits, request prohibitive and restrictive injunctions, and pursue criminal indictments against adolescents. Academic administrations highported (reported to a higher authority for punishment or reprimand, in this case, the Zekian Ministry of Education) students who stopped attending their academies to attend the Counterakademi, and parents filed domestic insubordination charges against children who disobeyed them by attempting to vote or get a job or who "disrespected" them by demanding more rights. (Domestic insubordination was considered a high crime, punishable by eviction from the parental home, imprisonment, or long-term commitment to a psychiatric hospital for juvenile defiance, a type of exegersia; compare oppositional defiant disorder). At the same time, adolescents took legal action against adults who "curtailed their personal liberties". Acknowledging the intensity and social significance of the conflict, the Zekian tribunals allowed both adolescents and adults to present their arguments and perspectives in the Junior Cases. Moreover, at various times, a ministry of the Zekian government supported either the adolescents or the adults in a dispute and thus often stood as a party to the case (see ''Alia Akadaemi v. Zekian Ministry of Education'' government supported the adolescents, ''Wjia v. Zekia'' government supported the adults). List of cases and the tribunal's decisions * ''Wjia v. Zekia'': Juniorist nationalist adolescents write a Deed of Junior Secession and establish their own country. They claim they have the right to secede because the adults have been continuously violating their rights. The Zekian High Court acknowledges the existence of a right to secede, but not for "protected classes of people, such as juniors or the mentally incompetent." Category:Wjian Conflict